Peer Skills | UnitingCare Community

Peer Skills

Peer Skills in action

There are many examples of how Peer Skills is being implemented in a range of settings. For more information about what is happening with Peer Skills contact the francesca [dot] lejeune [at] uccommunity [dot] org [dot] au (Peer Skills Manager).

What’s involved for my School or Agency?

One of the first steps is for your school or agency to consider what it would like to achieve through involvement with a peer helping program such as Peer Skills. There are many aspects that can be discussed with the stakeholders in your community. For example:

• What are the goals for my school or community as a whole?
• What are the goals for the individual young people involved?

The National Association of Peer Program Professionals (USA) has developed standards and elements that they recommend considering when implementing peer programs.

In Australia, many schools and agencies have been very successful in running Peer Skills Workshops and developing peer programs over a number of years.

This document, UnitingCare Community Peer Skills - Helping Skills for Life, is from the Department of Communities, 2007 Queensland Youth Conference - Young , Empowered, Strong.

Testimonials and Case Studies

Gympie Peer Skills Implementation

Community Connections facilitated a Peer Skills workshop in February 2008 with students from migrant and refugee backgrounds attending year 12 at Kedron State High School. The workshop was offered to students to assist them to develop their skills to support their peers both with schooling and personal issues. For many of these young people participating in education presents unique challenges. The workshop provided them with an opportunity to start exploring some of these issues and to take steps to further support each other and address them within the school community. Read their feedback.

The Peer Skills Resources and the Peer Skills Network

Peer Skills participant booklets and badges are currently available to accredited facilitators and their schools or agencies through Peer Skills Qld. Resources costs can be found on the Peer Skills Workshop Registration Form.